Cyprus News

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci meet on Thursday afternoon in the context of the Cyprus reunification talks. The meeting takes place at 1830 hours local time (1530 GMT) at the UN protected area within the Nicosia buffer zone.This is the second time the two leaders meet after a nearly two month break in the talks after Akinci left the negotiating table. The meeting is expected to focus on EU matters, governance and economy.

2. EU leaders should ask Erdogan if he still wants to join Europe, Kati Piri says

Turkey accessions negotiations rapporteur Kati Piri called today the EU leaders to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and ask if his country still wants to join the European club in the wake of a referendum that gave him massive powers, according to EUObserver, a major Brussels media outlet, yesterday. More specifically Kati Piri told the EUObserver that "EU and Turkish relations are at their lowest point ever, it would have been timely for EU leaders to call for a meeting with the Turkish government, and ask them where do they want to go with the accession".

3. Cyprus President conveys condolences for Greek officers who perished in helicopter crash

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades has expressed the Cypriot people`s, the government`s and his personal condolences to the Greek people, government and families of the Greek officers who lost their lives while on duty when a helicopter crashed on Wednesday. In a written statement President Anastasiades says that it is "with great sorrow that I was informed of the loss of officers of the Greek Army who lost their lives while on duty."

4. IMF expects Cyprus` public debt to grow in 2017

International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects Cyprus` public debt to grow to 109.3% of GDP in 2017 compared to 108% in 2016, according to its Fiscal Monitor for April 2017 issued yesterday. According to IMF projections, Cyprus` General Government gross debt is not expected to fall below 100% before 2020, adopting a more conservative approach in relation to October 2016 when IMF projected that Cyprus` debt would have fallen to 97.9% in 2019. IMF considers that the ratio of government debt to GDP in Cyprus was at 108% in 2016, and will increase to 109.3% in 2017. Thereafter will decrease to 107.4% in 2018, to 100.5% in 2019, to 95% in 2020, to 91.6% in 2021 and to 86.7% in 2022.

5. Cyprus and Austria sign MoU for military cooperation

Austria`s Defence Minister Hans Peter Doskozil is paying Cyprus an official visit, at the invitation of his Cypriot counterpart Christoforos Fokaides. Fokaides officially welcomed Doskozil at the National Guard`s headquarters, followed by a private meeting of the two ministers and extended talks between the two countries` delegations. The ministers signed an MoU for military cooperation, as a result of the recent substantial upgrading of bilateral relations between the two countries in the fields of defence and security.

6. Republic of Cyprus donates €125,000 to CMP

The Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) has expressed its sincere thanks to the Republic of Cyprus for its donation of €125,000 made on Thursday. This allocation, according to a press release issued by CMP, brings the Republic of Cyprus’ financial assistance to the CMP to a total of €2,535,700 since 2005. So far, 750 missing persons from both communities have been identified and returned to their families for a dignified burial.CNA